Israeli media is reporting that Israeli security forces have closed the East Jerusalem offices of two organizations accused of serving as a based for Hamas operations in the city. According to a report in the Haaretz newspaper:
Hamas
November 8, 2011 Israeli security forces on Thursday closed two offices in East Jerusalem they say served as a base for Hamas operations in the city.
The Shin Bet security service said the offices belonged to Al-Quds Development and Amara al-Aqsa (Al-Aqsa Properties), charities based in the northern Israeli cities of Umm al-Fahm and Nazareth.
The Shin Bet said in a statement that agents and the Israel Police had closed ‘two Jerusalem offices, from which the Hamas terror organization had been conducting actions.’
The statement said the Al-Quds Development office was first closed in 2010, ‘after it emerged that they served as an executive arm’ for Hamas in Jerusalem. It reopened in 2012 after the police closure order expired, at which point the Shin Bet began to reevaluate the organization’s activities.
Thursday’s closure came ‘following up-to-date information that Hamas … continues to act there,’ the security agency said.
Amara al-Aqsa was closed due to ‘information on activities aiding and supporting Hamas in Jerusalem,’ the Shin Bet said, which also ‘led to violence against visitors and security forces on the Temple Mount.’
On Wednesday, dozens of Palestinian women and men affiliated with Amara al-Aqsa tried to prevent Israeli police from entering the Al-Aqsa mosque after a small Islamist demonstration was held at the flashpoint religious site near the Western Wall revered by Jews.
The Shin Bet said it also searched the Nazareth offices of Amarat al-Aqsa.
Representatives of the institutions were not immediately available for comment.”
The GMBDW reported earlier this month that Israeli Muslim Brotherhood leader Raed Salah had been convicted by an Israeli court of incitement to violence.
The Hamascharter says that it is “one of the wings of the Muslim Brothers in Palestine” and soon after Hamas took over the Gaza strip, Muslim Brotherhood representatives traveled to Gaza from Egypt through the newly-opened border to review Hamas military formations. A Hamas journalist has acknowledged the role that the “international Muslim Brotherhood” has played in providing funds for the purchase of weapons and Hamas is known to be supported financially and politically by the global Muslim Brotherhood. A Muslim Brotherhood spokesman revealed that a coalition of London-based Muslim groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood, were behind the mass demonstrations staged to protest Israeli actions in the 2008 Gaza war and the Global Muslim Brotherhood and its Turkish affiliates were also intimately involved, along with the Turkish government, in the June 2010 Gaza flotilla that was involved in a violent altercation with Israeli naval forces. Following a period of seeming ascension related to the period of Egyptian rule by the Muslim Brotherhood, the organization was forced to scramble to try and find other state sponsors after Mohamed Morsi was deposed as President. In September 2013, it appeared that Hamas had succeeded in re-establishing close ties with Iran. In October 2013, Hamas leader political leader Khaled Mashaal (aka Kahled Meshaal) paid what was described as a “surprise visit” to Ankara in order to meet with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
